Major limb of maple tree fell off due to ice rain/wind. What do?

[WackyTomato]

Hi all,

We are currently going through a massive ice rain storm / wind gusts in Ontario. On Monday, a major limb of my mature sugar maple tree in front of my house fell off. Thankfully, not on our house...! See picture there: https://imgur.com/a/BUR5P

My question: Will the tree survive this? Should I call an arborist to have the tree removed? How much would that set me back approx?

Thanks a lot for any advice you might have.

 

[ATH]

That doesn't look like a removal based on that picture. Find somebody who can give you a good assessment of that. I can already tell you what the folks who primarily remove trees are going to say... You want to find somebody who offers consulting services and that is a service you will pay for.

 

[capetrees]

The tree will survive, similar issue happened to a clients tree last year during a storm. We cut the broken limb from the tree, cut the broken stub as cleanly as possible and left it so we didn't make pockets or voids where moisture could collect. A good 1/4 of the tree broke away but it's still there today and leafed out fine last year.

 

[WackyTomato]

I guess I am worried about heartwood rot in the center of the trunk. As you can see a little bit in the picture, it is quite dark where the limb cracked. I am worried that the tree is now structurally weakened and to basically be a time bomb before something calls on the house

 

[Del_]

The dark spot is likely included bark and led to the limb failing. Just cut off as much of the broken limb as possible without damaging other limbs and you should be good.

 

[ATH]

that is why you need to have somebody qualified look at it in person. Are there other limbs like that with included bark? As @Del_ said, the dark spots you see now are associated with the limb that already failed - that likely would have been predictable if an expert looked at it before that happened.